Tanuki Yokai

I think sekigane is a common thing in later iron Tsuba from the start simply to have a softer material on the Nakago.

Thanks for showing this piece and i just want to add that the lacquer is just a variation of Nanako-nuri in my opinion.

https://markussesko.com/2022/07/08/oda-samonji/ it’s only a small but informative part in regard to your question .

they look cast to me

Hope the link works https://www.instagra...33-CoGO/?img_index=4 it is a really good restauration ! "It belongs to the collection of the Samurai Museum in Berlin."

Looks interesting, when seeing how big the Nakago is the blade must have a lot of material lost with the polishes over time. looks like the blade is narrower then the Nakago and they made a “new” Hamachi. I would agree on Kotō but I don’t really have a clue if Nanbokucho or late Muromachi period. From the Nakago and what I think I can see in the hamon I would guess bizen.

The smith at Usagiya also rehardned blades himself that later received NBTHK paper. With their words:”Sometimes NBTHK is a joke”. From my personal experience as someone that has rehardned some blades I made, I don’t think you can see if it’s original or saiha. what is a real sign of saiha anyway ?

My guess is Aoe Yoshitsugu.

It goes even more into detail with the automatically generated and "translated" subtitles.

Thanks for sharing but the last pictures are wrong. No. 56 is the same blade picture from 54 the Soshu Hirotsugu. Same for #45 it is the picture from #33 in my opinion.

But why would soft steel or iron break like this ? I would think it would take some bent first but the piece on the picture looks like a good fake if it is one ? I know that they have their „own“ views at Usagiya sometimes.

I was mainly talking about this Tsuba that I think isn’t cast. I don’t see any clear evidence for casting and think that some parts are just naturally corroded over time. There are many ways to create the iron patina and some may leave a surface that could me misinterpreted as looking casted. I have read the part about casting from Dr. Lissenden. So the idea is that making it the „traditional“ way was too Labour intense, but I think that was very cheap. How much more charcoal and people would be needed to get the iron to melting temperature that generates additional expenses. So I cannot really say what would be the cheaper way of making them. At some point I stopped following the thread and just want to say something because the NBTHK papered Tsuba looks not cast for me. http://www.ksky.ne.j...umie99/episodes.html

You can also make forged metal look like it has a sand casted surface and proves nothing for me. I think this is the main problem here. And your breaking test on a sand casted pan is really not very meaningful because of the fact that modern sand casting is an scientifically advanced process and the alloys and their properties are selected for the area of application and have not much in common with the traditional methods.